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Unhappy with the performance of moderator Martha Raddatz during last night's debate between Vice President Joe Biden and Rep Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Conservative blogger Erick Erickson tweeted the following:
I'm sorry, but I think Martha Raddatz did an atrocious job as a moderator.She lost control of both sides repeatedly.— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) October 12, 2012
Later, during a CNN interview, anchor Soledad O'Brien challenged Erickson for his characterization of Raddatz's performance.
"I think you have lost your mind," O'Brien said after Erickson reaffirmed his "atrocious" comment. "I actually thought the -- "
"I think you're a journalist and journalists are going to give her cover. I thought she was horrible," Erickson interjected.
"I don’t think it's cover. I've never met her before today. She walked by, I said, 'Hi.' But I actually thought, in terms of information," she continued, "for me, a moderator who stays out of it but let’s them go at each other a little bit so you can get some of the argument, but then jumps in and moves it to the right -- to another direction. I think that was very helpful as someone just, you know, watching it. I got to watch it in the hall. Why do you disagree?"
"Well, because I think she only interrupted and 'moved the debate forward' when Paul Ryan was speaking," Erickson argued, "she rarely did it with Joe Biden. She let Joe Biden do the interruption."
For the record, and for what it’s worth, Raddatz did interrupt Rep. Ryan 31 times while only cutting off the vice president 19 times.
"Her wheelhouse is foreign policy. She devoted probably two-thirds of the debate to foreign policy. And, you know, when you’re debating in foreign policy in a vice presidential debate, I guess that’s all well and good, but we have this unemployment number, we’ve got the jobs decline, and I just think moderators shouldn’t make the focus their wheelhouse," Erickson said.
"Yeah, I’m going to disagree with you on that," said the perpetually concerned-looking O’Brien. "I really think she did a terrific job. I thought she was super strong."
Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter
(H/T: BuzzFeed). Front page photo source courtesy the AP.
